kitchen sink blondies
So Saturday morning I’m dinking around online during Parker’s nap kinda lazily going over the day’s activities–return pants, eye exam, barbeque at Tom’s parents’… Then the panic sets in. I have prepared nothing to bring. Sure, he had told me a few days earlier not to worry about bringing anything, but between our move and work, and oh yeah, I have a kid, I totally forgot to ignore him and make something anyway. At this point, I maybe had, oh 45 minutes before Parker woke up and Tom came back from getting his oil changed. And from that point, we were off for the day. I also was limited to what was in the pantry, because as we all know, when Parker’s sleeping, I CAN’T GO ANYWHERE. So I racked my cluttered mind, browsed a couple blogs, and pulled out these little beauties.
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I’ve made them before for Christmas cookie platters, and I forgot how simple they. Seriously, the base is five ingredients (well, plus salt). And while everyone loves the bittersweet depth and darkness of a Brownie, there’s always room for her spunkier, outspoken little sister Blondie.
Basically, you combine butter, sugar, egg, and flour, and then throw in whatever you have in your pantry. Quite helpful when you’re trying to clean up odd ends and bits of things left in your pantry before you attempt to move it all. What did I use for this particular batch? Ha, what didn’t I? Milk chocolate chips (I would have preferred semi-sweet, but I had them left from these), toasted pecans, my dear frenemy Johnnie Walker, toasted unsweetened coconut leftover from these, toffee bits, and a piece of Sharffen Berger I had hanging around from who knows what. (An actual baking project or a late night/early morning/midday binge, who’s to say?) Mix it up, pour into an 8×8, bake for 20-25 minutes.
I cut this particular batch up using a cookie cutter, cause I’m fancy and was trying to impress his parents, but you can obviously just cut into squares. But you can freeze the leftover scraps and add them into homemade ice cream as it churns. (Or mix them into store-bought.) You could also cut the baking time back a few minutes, top it with vanilla ice cream straight outta the oven, and promptly apply to face. In spirit of today’s holiday, I can think of one particular activity that would be a perfect time killer for those 20 minutes… Ultimate munchie, anyone?
Kitchen Sink Blondies
from Smitten Kitchen, originally from How to Cook Everything8 tablespoons (one stick) of butter, melted
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 cup AP flourPreheat oven to 350. Combine butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. Add the vanilla and salt; stir in flour to combine. Add any (or none) of the following (I used about 1 1/4 cups of add-ins total):
- toasted nuts
- 1/4 cup dark liquor such as rum, bourbon, scotch, etc. (Add an additional tablespoon of flour.)
- toasted, preferrably unsweetened, coconut
- toffee bits
- chocolate chips/chopped up bar of (white) chocolate
- dried fruit
- different extracts (mint, almond, etc.)
- a mashed banana
Pour into greased 8×8 pan, bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool before cutting.
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These blondies look absolutely delicious. I have it bookmarked to try. I love all the addins..come enter my giveaway!
I saw your comment at SK and thought oooh, this is a procrastinator with style! One thing I have noticed about SK’s recipes is how they have this built-in boy that looks good but difficult factor. I’m not sure what it is…the really great pictures, the ingredient list or the directions. What amounts to the same recipe for blondies looks totally different done here. Like, ooh I could do that, right now, even.
Well I hope I’ve convinced you to try these–they really are minimum effort for maximum result.
And we’ll see if Deb can keep up with those pictures when she has that baby on her hip. Kidding, of course, I wish her the best, but seriously? It’s not easy taking pictures when you’re kid is screaming in your ear/begging you for raisins/banging on the piano/coloring on the walls/etc. etc. etc. So I make easy things like blondies, and put up shitty pictures because hey, they’re better than nothing.
Thanks for stopping by! ;)
@Donna - You’re crazy! I wanted to enter your giveaway…but I couldn’t remember the first time….LOL
@Meleyna - You’re making coconut look good to me again (you know I hate it).
Aimee–I’m hoping to get around to posting some coconutty goodness that just might convert you. In the meantime, make these without the coconut. ;)
Mhm, coconut is always good! Your recipe sounds great.
2am on a Friday night…perfect munchies you say? Wish I had a kitchen…
You’re a funny bunny! Me and you, we got lots in common: we like to bake and love to booze! And the part about being, well, partly asian. Love it, huh!! And I saw you made Deb’s Blood Orange Tart. I made it too! And while mine was gorgeous to look at, it tasted… interesting. I like my oranges cold. That’s just my preference. Anyways, I tried the profanity bit in my posts, but I got a long email from mother explaining that my “profane humor” detracted from my “sweet girl” appeal. So I guess I’ll have to just read your blog to get my yayas good and out! Keep making me laugh girl!
luv,
heather
I saw your post re Kitchen Aid on SK. Whoa, that boy is looking like a keeper! Very nice gifting. I actually made the cream cheese bundt cake and it was exceptional, in case you want to try out your KA before you start doing stuff like pretzels or bagels. Congrats on a nice gift.
That looks so good, I have never had blondie bars! Can you believe it? These look lovely though:)
These look and sound amazing! I’m reading Linda’s comment and I have a kitchen aid too. The first thing I made in it were brownies - the second thing free-form loaf bread! So I think depending on your level of comfort, go crazy!
Although I would like to try a piece of that cream cheese bundt cake :)